Taking a stroll in the Recoleta neighborhood

IN THE HEART OF BUENOS AIRES, just off the avenue that honors the day Argentina won its independence from Spain, is the Teatro Colón. One of the most acoustically perfect theaters in the world, the 2,500-seat venue was designed by Italian architects using Belgian and Austrian marble, with French furnishings and floors made of oak from the forests of Croatia. Like Buenos Aires itself, the theater is a combination of the best of Europe, built at a time when the emergent city sought to become the Paris of South America, before its tortured run of brutal military dictatorships interspersed with fragile, contentious democracies (one featuring Eva “Evita” Perón, the charismatic first lady who posthumously became an international icon). Today, newly reopened after a three-year, $100 million renovation, the Teatro Colón is a symbol of a thrumming metropolis as eclectic as they come, not only in its architecture but also in the mélange of nationalities and cultures that blends European sophistication and Latin spice. The result is a diverse, thriving city that is wholly South American and, at the same time, absolutely unlike any other.

2 Responses to “Three Perfect Days: Buenos Aires”

It’s quite curios to see the fascination of foreigners with Evita Peron. The picture they have of Evita comes probably from the movie or the play and has no connection to the real character. Many Argentineans have a very different and much less favorable opinion of who she was and what she did. At the same time and again based in a film, Juan Peron is view as a dark power behind her, also false. There would be no Evita without Peron and he was the driving force behind the changes that improved the living conditions of most workers in Argentina.

I think the author missed the mark. Most Argentineans go to Fervor for the seafood and fish, not the steak. Shopping on the same day in Palermo and in Recoleta is like shopping on Madison Avenue and in Brooklyn all in one afternoon. Buenos Aires is a large cosmopolitan city and it takes time to get from one place to another. Argentineans take you past the Evita Peron photo, say take a look, you’ve seen enough. There’s so much more to this wonderful South American city with locals who speak Spanish, act like Americans, and think like Italians.